Predator Ridge axes ‘not marketable’ 20-year-old condo plan

Almost 20 years after Predator Ridge proposed to build a four-storey 28-unit condo building, the company is now hoping to scrap the idea.

Currently, Predator Ridge's main lodge consists of three strata buildings, but originally the plan was to build four phases of the condos.

However, the developer is now taking the required legal steps to withdraw the proposed strata building.

According to a legal petition filed in the B.C. Supreme Court, Predator Ridge said that building the same units as it currently has would not be marketable.

"Nearly 20 years have elapsed since the project was initially conceived, and consumer tastes and demands have shifted substantially in the intervening time," the court document reads.

"Buyers' tastes have changed pretty dramatically since those plans were initially conceived in 2002," Predator Ridge director of planning Gordon Karau told iNFOnews.ca.

Karau said it has not yet been finalized what will be built instead, but building apartments on a larger site stretching from the main lodge to Commonage Road was one idea.

According to the court documents, the condos that Predator Ridge did build have not been particularly successful.

The court documents say between 2005 and 2007 only three of 29 strata lots were sold.

The financial crisis then affected real estate markets "for many years after 2008" the court documents say.

And buyers lost money.

"Sales of strata lots… typically sold for a price less than the original purchase price for the strata lots," the documents say.

Added to the issue were strata fees which tripled from 2004 to 2022.

Karau said that some water leaks in the building pushed up insurance which in turn increased strata fees.

Two-bedroom condos now pay around $1,000 a month in strata fees.

Karau said the original condos had little to no closet space, no in-suite laundry, and limited balconies. The building was also built out of wood, whereas now concrete is much more desirable, for soundproofing and other reasons.

The planning director admitted the condos had been hard to sell although, in the last year or so a lot more had been sold.

The court document, which is largely procedural, now asks the City of Vernon to extend a building deadline, which actually expired in 2008, to 2023, which will then be amended to remove the proposed building of the strata.

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